Here Be Dragons
by ambrosiagrl
Summary: Future Fic. Jackson's father, the junior Harper Avery, shows up unexpectedly at Grey-Sloan Memorial and turns the the worlds of Jackson, April and Catherine upside down. Set sometime after season 10.
1. Chapter 1

Hello, all. Sorry for being MIA. I know a lot of you are waiting for an update to The Weight of Expectation, sorry the wait is going to continue for a bit. Working that story is driving me nuts. I'll have it up eventually. Hopefully this little 2-shot makes up for it in some small way. This is a future fic and somewhat of a Jackson character study set somewhere after season 10, so everything that has happened up to 10x15 is cannon, the rest is pure speculation and imagination! Beware: this story is un-beta'ed, there's lots of dialogue, and some angst so if that's not your thing, then steer clear of this story.

Note: All references to Harper Avery will pertain to Jackson's father (not grandfather) unless stated otherwise.

**Here Be Dragons**

_April Kepner-Avery wasn't always a very observant person. She didn't sit and watch, she wasn't still. She moved; sometimes erratically, sometimes dramatically. It was no surprise that she'd found her calling in trauma, a specialty that required constant action, quick analysis, fast thinking. _

_Her husband was the opposite. Jackson was thoughtful, calm. His actions were measured. His specialty, Plastics, was also no surprise. Rationale went into figuring out how to reattach someones skin almost seamlessly. He had to listen to his patients desires and concerns, process them, and to the best of his ability - give them the results they were looking for._

_In short, they were complete opposites but somehow they worked, fit together as seamlessly as reattached skin, and loved as dramatically as any two people could. _

_But (and there is always a but, isn't there?) even the most well matched of people face the unpredictable, the unplanned, the unexpected; the dragons._

_How they slay those dragons shows the real meat of a couple..._

**1**

Watching Jackson was an indulgence: something April could do for hours on end and had. She knew when her husband was happy or upset or irritated. She knew when he was in the mood to grab her and make fast, passionate love, and when he wanted to go toe-curlingly slow. She knew him so well in fact, that she understood Jackson's current disposition to be angry. Not the kind of angry that made his brows draw together and his face frown up. No, he was the kind of angry that was so subtle, no one would know it unless they _knew_ him.

The man standing before her husband, she didn't know at all. She'd heard a bit about him here and there over the years she'd known Jackson but that was it. He was a perfect stranger, except he wasn't, not quite. How could he be a stranger when he reminded her so much of her husband?

Standing in equal height to Jackson, he wore his graying, sandy hair cut close, his eyes were a more piercing than his son's green eyes, but the slant was the same, the dusky lashes. He even moved like her husband, smooth and confident. So he wasn't exactly a stranger, not quite.

"It's good to see you, Jackson." His voice was low and evenly measured. He extended his hand to his son, a proffering.

April watched as Jackson swallowed hard before replying, his hands remaining firmly in his lab coat pockets.

"I wish I could say the same."

The older man dropped his hand, breathing heavily. "I guess I deserve that."

"Guess so."

There were no inches being giving on Jackson's end and against her better judgement, April felt bad for his father. It was that nagging soft spot inside of her, the one that had made her (a full adult at the time) cry on her father's shoulder and plead with him not to sell their fat, ready-for-the-dinner-table pig (later named Jacks) to the Marshall's. The same soft spot that made her weepy every thanksgiving when those same Marshall's brought a freshly plucked turkey to their door for her mother to roast.

April sometimes felt too deeply, and now she was sympathizing with a man that she should probably be wary of for her husbands sake. She blamed it on the slump of his shoulders and the defeated look in his eye. He put her in the mind of a kicked puppy. It tugged at her chest.

"Jackson?" April called, stepping forward, making her presence known.

Her voice appeared to shake something within Jackson. He took a step back from his father, his attention snapping to her. He looked relieved. "April." Her name was a thank you on his lips. Wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close to his side, he introduced her to his father. "This is Harper Avery Junior, my father. Harper, this is my wife, April." The pride in his voice was unmistakable. Even after all of the months that had passed since that fateful day last winter, she still got butterflies hearing him refer to her as _his wife_.

Harper's smile was Jackson's smile. Straight teeth, face alight. He looked in awe at his son and then to her. "April, very nice to meet you." He shuffled his feet, seemingly unsure if he should shake her hand, hug her or pat his son on the back.

April made the decision for him, offering her hand for a quick, slightly awkward greeting. "Thank you, you too."

Harper's hands were Jackson's hands. Long, slim fingers, strong, capable.

After an unbearably long silence where Jackson and April stared at Harper while he stared at them, April forced her lagging brain to come up with something to say. "So what brings you here… to Seattle?"

"Yes - uh - a case. I'm working on a case at The University of Washington."

"Of course." Jackson's tone was sardonic. "What else would bring you out of your self-imposed exile?"

"Son, I wanted to see you as well."

Her husband noticeably flinched at the 'son' endearment. "I find that hard to believe," he replied.

"I don't expect you to believe me but if I could just -"

"What? Explain?"

April would call what they were doing 'yelling' but the more contentious they became the lower their voices went. "Maybe now isn't the best time," April asserted, stopping the back and forth. "Maybe you would like to have dinner?" The proposal surprised Harper (she could tell from the way his brows rose) and angered Jackson (she could feel his disapproving eyes on her) but she pushed on. "At our place. Tonight."

"Yeah, I don't think that's a good-"

"I'd love to," Harper cut in before Jackson could rule the offer out all together.

"Great," April said with more enthusiasm than she felt. "I'll just write the address down. Be right back." Her hand was shaking as she scribbled the address to their apartment on a post-it that she grabbed from behind the front desk. She steadied herself with a deep breath and an internal pep-talk that convinced her she'd made the right decision in inviting Harper to their home. When she returned to Jackson's side the two men seemed to be partaking in a mutual silence which April strongly believed was for the best. Whatever they had to say to each other should be said in private, not in a room full of gossiping doctors and nurses.

After handing the post-it over and setting a time, April said her goodbye and pulled Jackson away with her.

"I really wish you wouldn't have done that," Jackson huffed. "I don't have anything to say to him."

"You may think that, Jackson, but it's obvious you both have a lot to say."

He stopped walking abruptly. Taking April's hand, he leaned against the wall by a water fountain. His eyes closed on a exhale. "I can't believe he showed up here." The anguish in her husband's voice was palpable.

"Jackson," April whispered, clasping his hand hard between hers. "Hey, I get it."

He shook his head. "You don't, April. You have no idea."

That was a point she had to concede. April really had no concept how he was feeling inside. She could imagine, she could empathize, but she'd never know his pain. April had always had her father in her life; sheltering her, guiding, loving and forgiving. How could she understand? "Let's just make it through tonight, okay? You can get it all out with him in private."

Jackson sighed, resigned. "Alright."

"Alright?" A hopeful smile cracked the corners of April's mouth.

"Yes, Alright." Jackson pulled her to him. "Anything for you," he murmured, bending to kiss her. "See you tonight."

"Okay."

April followed her husband's retreating form as he walked away. The smile that had tilted the corners of her mouth just moments before; quickly souring.

* * *

Dinner at the Avery's usually meant a three course meal minimum. April was nothing short of a fantastic hostess. She loved to entertain their friends whenever she could come up with a reason to have a get-together at their apartment.

Their families were another story. The first time Jackson and April brought their families together had turned into a big disaster when Kimmie confiscated a very expensive bottle of Merlot, and hid out in Jackson and April's bedroom drinking it only to emerge a walking, talking tornado. Catherine had been thoroughly entertained until Kimmie decided that the way in which Jackson ruined April's dream wedding was wrong. Libby and Alice chirped their agreement. With Jackson under attack, Catherine became terribly affronted and made that well known to all of the Kepner's. Jackson's grandfather of course backed up his daughter-in-law, which April's mom didn't take kindly to, when he "suggested" that maybe April might be a gold digger, otherwise why would she run off with his Jackie at her dream wedding? Karen Kepner had burst into hysterical tears. And then an huge argument ensued between the Avery's and the Kepner's as Jackson and April looked on in horror.

After that fiasco, they decided to never entertain both their families together again, and that when they entertained the Kepner's, all alcohol would be locked away.

Tonight would be a different type of entertaining. There would be no funny exchanging of medical stories between friends, or arguments between family. There would be tension and awkwardness and questions that Jackson wasn't sure he wanted to know the answers to.

April had to work later than she thought she would, so Jackson was left to decide the menu. He stopped at a pizza place on his way home and picked up a large pepperoni. He knew April would have created a beautiful meal if she'd had the time, but his father didn't deserve her kindness anyway so pizza it was. He arrived home fifteen minutes before his father was set to arrive, giving him enough time for a quick shower and to straighten up a little.

Time ticked by and there was no Harper Avery Jr. He checked his watch, the clock on the stove and the microwave.

Ten minutes late, fifteen, twenty, an hour. He wasn't coming.

It was the story of Jackson's life: Invite dad to his little league game, dad never came. High school graduation; no show. College graduation; he sent a card. It read: "congratulations graduate" that was it.

Jackson hadn't really thought this time would be different, even if he secretly wanted it to be.

A key clicked in the door. Jackson wasn't sure when it had happened, but he'd come to find comfort in that sound. It signaled that his wife was home, that he'd have a soft place to land after a long day, that his life was pretty damn great. So what, Harper didn't show? He had April and that was more than enough. "Hey," he called as she walked in.

"Hey, I got takeout from that really good place on the corner by Joe's," April announced tipping up on her tip toes to give him a kiss. Her eyes flicked to the living room, her expression dropping. "He didn't show?" The disappointment in her voice was apparent.

"No."

"I'm sorry, Jackson. I shouldn't have forced it." April set the bag of takeout on the kitchen counter then discreetly wiped at her eyes.

Now Jackson was mad. It was one thing to let him down, but to let April down was unforgivable.

"Hey, hey." He pulled her into his chest. "Don't be."

"It's just -" Her words were muffled against his chest. "You were right, it was a bad idea."

"You couldn't have known."

April pulled back. "Look at me?" She said exasperated. "You're comforting me and he did this to you."

Jackson tilted his head, studying her face. "He did it to you, too."

April busied herself by pulling out the takeout. "You know what? I'm going to shower. How about takeout and pizza by candlelight when I get out?"

Jackson couldn't help but smile at April's attempt to make the best out of a crappy situation. "Sounds perfect." He caught her arm as she started for their room. "I love you."

April flattened her palm against his chest. "I love you, too, Jackson. I really wish-"

"No more about my father, okay?"

"Okay."

He grinned down at her. "How about we take that shower together?"

"But you already showered," she argued, cutely missing the point.

"I know."

"Oh. _Oh_." She turned to walk away, then coyly looking back, red curls bouncing between her shoulder blades, she asked, "You coming, Mr. Avery?"

How could he ever resist?

* * *

Nervous didn't begin to explain the junior Harper Avery's current disposition. He'd spent way too much time in the specialty store looking for the perfect bottle of wine to take his son. As he walked the isles (picking up bottles, setting them back down) it hit him just how little he knew his own child. He didn't know if Jackson drank red wine or white or if he didn't drink wine at all and would prefer a bottle of top shelf Brandy or Vodka or should he just take beer? After he decided on a bottle of Chardonnay that the teller pushed him into getting, he stared for even longer at flowers to take to April. Did she like roses? Pink, white, yellow? Or was she a lily type of person? He groaned and grabbed a selection of purple tulips that reminded him of Spring, hence April, and set out to the address on the post-it.

He was late. Over an hour late, but better late than never, right?

As he knocked at the door, his heart pounded in his chest. His stomach felt on edge.

He didn't know his son at all and Jackson was angry with him, rightfully so. This night could go badly. Very, very badly.

When there was no answer, he knocked again.

This time he heard fumbling with the lock and hushed voices on the other side of the door. Jackson pulled it ajar and poked his head out. "Oh."

His son was wearing only a pair of sweats. "Did I catch you at a bad time. Am I too late?"

"Actually, yeah."

"Jackson, who is it?"

Harper couldn't see April but he would bet that she was in a similar state of undress.

"Nobody," Jackson responded, staring him straight in the eye.

That took the wind out of his sails. "Look, Jackson-"

The small voice of his son's wife made Jackson look away and behind the door.

They spoke in hushed tones. A lovers quarrel over him.

After a moment, Jackson reappeared. "Come in," he said, begrudgingly opening the door wider and stepping aside so that Harper could pass.

He took in his son's apartment in one quick sweep. It was very grown up, sophisticated, very Avery. "Nice place."

"Thanks."

April, who had disappeared before he walked in, now reappeared. She was wearing jeans and a t shirt, her red hair was wet and pulled into a ponytail. "'Hi."

"Hello. Sorry for being late."

Something passed between she and his son as April handed Jackson a shirt, something that Harper couldn't make out. It was the secret language of lovers. He wasn't privy.

"That's okay, she said. You're here now. Oh!" She walked to the table and blew out two lit candles.

So he'd interrupted them. "For you," he extended the tulips to April, a peace offering.

Her eyes went wide. "Oh. Um. Thank you," she said, taking them. "How sweet."

"I didn't know if you'd like roses or lily's… tulips."

Jackson shoved his shirt over his head and pushed his arms through. "Wild flowers," Jackson informed, adjusting his shirt.

"I'll remember that next time."

"If there is a next time," Jackson grumbled under his breath.

"These are fine." The nudge April gave his son didn't go unnoticed. "They're gorgeous. I'm going to put them in a vase."

April left them standing there and went to poke around in the kitchen but her stare, he noted, never quite left them.

"I brought white," Harper handed Jackson the bottle of wine he'd painstakingly decided on.

The muscle in his son's jaw jumped, similar to his when he was agitated. "We're more red wine drinkers."

Jackson didn't reach for the bottle so Harper set it down on the table. "Pizza," he remarked.

"And takeout," April chirped. "Hope that's okay."

They ate in a strained silence that his son's wife did her best to fill up with encouraging topics that should have led to great conversations but instead went nowhere. Harper appreciated her effort but Jackson wasn't biting and he was floundering, faced with the hard truth that he really didn't know his son. Pushing that reality down because he couldn't face it, not here not now, he decided to try a safe subject. "So how did you two meet?" he tried.

Jackson cleared his throat, glancing across the table at April. "We met as interns at the former Mercy West."

So there was a topic Jackson would talk freely about.

"Before the merger then?"

"You know about the merger?" April asked. Where Jackson seemed to shy away from more hard-hitting topics, April had no problem diving head first into them. He respected that about her, but it admittedly put him on edge.

"I keep up with most medical news," he assured her. "So you've been together for years then?" Harper tried to steer the conversation away from himself.

Another shared look between them. "No, not _years_," April told him.

"We were friends first," Jackson added.

"Good foundation for a relationship."

"Yeah," Jackson agreed, smiling.

"Where have you been practicing... if you don't mind me asking?" April inquired.

Harper cleared his throat, reaching for his wine glass. "I have a private practice in Paris, France."

"Nice."

He smiled at April. He had misjudged her. She wan't the mild do-well wife he'd initially read her to be when she invited him to dinner. Not at all. She had teeth, sharp ones, and she used them. "Indeed."

"So what do you do when you're not working?" The annoyance in Jackson's voice did not go unnoticed.

"Well, I travel."

"Really? Did you remarry? Have a new family?"

Harper choked on his wine. He coughed hard into his napkin.

"I'll get some water," April excused herself.

When Harper caught his breath again he found his son lounging back in his chair staring at him, waiting. "So…?"

"No. I didn't remarry and I didn't have any more kids. After the way things ended with… it wouldn't have been right."

Jackson leaned forward, picking up his glass. "How considerate of you," he said cynically before taking a sip.

"Son, I'd really like to explain myself."

"I don't need an explanation. Maybe when I was ten and the only kid whose father didn't show up to Boy Scouts camping trips. Or when I was 13 and got my first girlfriend, maybe I needed you then. When I went to medical school; would have been nice to get some advice from you. But I'm thirty-one now, I'm a grown man. I'm married. What could you possibly have to tell me that would matter or change anything this late in the game?"

"Some water," April said. Her gaze was fixated on Jackson as she set the glass down, communicating in that secretive language again. "Well, I have an early morning," she announced.

Jackson and Harper both stood.

"Thank you for your hospitality, April. I hope to see you around the hospital."

"You're welcome and that would be nice." Her eyes followed Jackson as he made his way to her side.

"I'll be there in a few."

Harper diverted his eyes to the panoramic view of the city while his son kissed his wife. He heard a whispered "love you" from them both and then April was gone.

"You've made a really nice life for yourself," he said standing before the windows, looking out. His son had, despite Harper not being there to guide him, turned out really well. Harper knew his father and Catherine wouldn't have had it any other way, though.

Jackson joined him. "Thanks."

"How is Catherine?"

"She''s-" He seemed to struggle for the right words, "-herself. In a relationship, running the foundation."

"She always excelled at that stuff." Where he had failed, Catherine had been everything that the elder Harper Avery could dream of in a child. Smart, dedicated, loyal to the family name.

"Look, Harper. Its been... interesting but I'm tired and ready for this night to end so-"

"Of course." Harper faced his son. "Thanks for having me. Maybe one day we can really talk."

"Maybe."

Harper stood outside of his son's apartment long after the door had been closed. After he'd left Boston, he didn't spend much time thinking about what he'd left behind. He didn't dwell on his family; not his overbearing father, or talented wife, not even his little boy who had looked up to him like he was the greatest person on the planet. He couldn't think about them because he'd remember how hard his father had worked to build the Avery name, and how wonderful and passionate Catherine was, how Jackson thought of him as a super hero.

It had been a bad idea to drop in on Jackson, but it felt necessary. Harper was reaching a point in his life where he had more days behind him than in front of him. That kind of realization made a person reevaluate decisions. So he'd walked into Grey-Sloan and asked for Jackson Avery. Seeing the child he'd left behind (a virtual mirror of himself, save his mothers' coloring) had floored him. He'd always known that he was missing something by leaving. He just never knew exactly what it was. Seeing Jackson, being in his presence, in his home, Harper now understood that what he'd been missing all of those years had been his son.

* * *

"Where is he?"

April didn't have to turn around to know her that her mother-in-law was the one asking the question. She looked up just as Catherine reached the nurses station. Closing her chart, she replied. "Catherine! Good to see you. Jackson is in surgery right now. He should be out soon."

"Not Jackson, dear. Harper. Where is Harper?"

April worried her bottom lip. She hadn't thought about Catherine finding out that her ex husband was in town. "I don't know," she answered honestly.

Catherine huffed, exasperated. "I can't believe he had the nerve to show up at this hospital."

"Um, Catherine, there's something you should know."

Catherine's eyes narrowed. "What's that?"

"Jackson and I… we had dinner with Harper last night."

Catherine leaned in. "You did _what_?"

April looked around at the curious stares shooting in their direction. "Can we?" She motioned to an empty on call room.

As soon as the door was closed behind them, Catherine went into a tirade sharp enough to skin the hide off a cow. April couldn't do anything but try to explain whenever Catherine let her get a word in edgewise. Explanations were useless anyway, since Catherine was having none of it. After Catherine had gotten it all out she took a deep breath. "How is Jackson?"

April wished she could say her husband was great, splendid, never better - but the truth was he wasn't any of those things at all. "He's been... withdrawn."

Catherine sat down heavily on the thin on-call room bed. "I'm not surprised. Jackson hasn't seen his father since he was a little boy."

And she had forced his hand in sitting down with the man and now her husband was barely talking to her. Tears stung the back of her eyes. "It's my fault and I feel horrible. If I wouldn't have invited him - if I had just left well enough alone." April heaved a pitiful cry, threw her hands up, and sat down next to Catherine.

"Here, here." Catherine wrapped an arm around April's shoulder. As sharp as Catherine could be, she was first and foremost a mother. "This is my fault. I knew he was coming, I should have warned Jackson. I didn't think he's actually go looking for him though. He's never done it before."

Catherine's admission about knowing Harper was coming surprised April. "Wait," she said sitting upright. "You knew he was coming?"

Catherine sprang to her feet. "I need to find Jackson, what OR is he in?"

April stood. "How exactly did you know he was coming? You've been in contact with him?"

"April, I don't have time to discuss this."

"Make time." April couldn't believe she'd just spoken like that to Catherine of all people. She slapped a hand over her mouth.

Catherine spun on her heel, facing April, surprise contorting her face into a caricature of sorts.

"Or not?" April added in a very small voice.

"Oh, what-the-hell! Harper is here for us to split assets and sign divorce papers."

"What?" April was stunned. "You're still married to him?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes. Jackson doesn't know and I don't want him to know."

April shook her head. "I can't keep secrets from Jackson."

"That's really sweet, April, and I appreciate that you love my baby so much, but you're going to have to keep this to yourself. Like you said, Jackson has been withdrawn. Do you really want to send him retreating further by telling him that his parents are still married?"

April thought about it. Catherine did have a valid point but it didn't feel right; lying. "So Harper's lying to him and you are too, now I will be. If he finds out, he might not forgive me."

Catherine grabbed April's hands imploring her to see things her way. "Then we make sure he doesn't find out."

* * *

Catherine Avery had called her soon to be ex-husband five times in the hour with no response. It wasn't surprising, but it was annoying. Harper had always been that way even before they married. Distant, quiet, hard to understand. But he'd also had his moments of romanticism. He was idealistic and free spirited, handsome and witty. She had fallen in love with the latter Harper and tried to find a way to deal with the former. Unfortunately, that hadn't lasted very long and their marriage dissipated.

There had been no blow up, no fanfare, they simply dissolved into nothingness over time. When Harper left it hadn't been unexpected, though is decision to not return home, even periodically for Jackson, had been.

She could have divorced him years ago, but he insisted that she remain an Avery and take his place at the foundation. It had seemed like a good idea at the time and she'd had the backing of the elder Harper - so, young and naive, she had agreed. That decision had worked out very well for her. She'd taken up the reigns at the foundation, helped the senior Harper form it into what it was today. She'd left her mark.

But what exactly did that mean if it resulted in her only son being mad at her for lying to him most of his life. Though it wasn't that she had ever told Jackson that she and Harper were divorced, but she'd let him assume it and never corrected the assumption.

Now, Harper was back and meddling in things he shouldn't be. The last thing she thought he'd do was seek out Jackson. When she'd gotten word from Richard that he'd shown up, Catherine was on the first thing smoking from Boston to see the mess he'd left in his wake. And what a mess it was. April was crying, Jackson wasn't talking and she was close to being outed as a liar.

Catherine rounded a corner and entered an observation deck. She hit the intercom. "Hey sweetheart."

Jackson looked up. She could tell he was frowning behind the mask. She smiled at him anyway and sat down.

Jackson was her pride and joy. For a long time she worried that he might end up like his father but he'd stepped up when it counted and had become a man that people could depend on. He was a great son, a great husband, a great hospital administrator. She wondered how long it would take his father to mess all of that up?

* * *

Jackson met his mom in the empty board room. He had a strong suspicion as to why she had shown up, but he was sure she'd be happy to find out that he wasn't pressed for a relationship with his father and he'd been avoiding Harper's calls and texts since he'd last seen him.

"I know what this is about," he said, taking a seat at the head of the table.

"Do you?" Catherine sat down in the seat to his right.

"I'm not looking for a relationship with him so you can stop worrying."

"I'm not_ worried_."

She lied horribly. Her voice always went up an octave and she drew out her last word, placing too much emphasis on it.

Jackson gave her a look that said he wasn't buying it. She waved him off. "If you say you're not then I believe you. It's best not to go down that road anyway. Nothing there but heartbreak."

He figured as much which was why he was avoiding his father at all costs. Still, there was a part of him that couldn't help but be curious. That part wanted to dive into a relationship with his father head first, find out everything there was to know about him. He saw bits of himself in his father and was a strange thing to find yourself in a stranger. But if he sought the questions he was looking for then what? Would his life be improved for it? He didn't know and he wasn't at a point in his life where he wanted to take a chance and find out.

"April says that you're upset, not talking much."

"I'm not upset."

Now _he_ was lying. He was upset but not with April. He was upset with himself for letting his father's reemergence in his life screw with his head.

"Then why would she say that?"

"I don't know; she's April, she worries?"

"Do you really think I believe anything you're saying. I'm your mother, I know when something is bothering you."

"Mom." His voice was a warning. He didn't feel like going there with her.

She put her hands up like a white flag. "Fine, I get that you don't want to talk to me about it but you should share it with your wife."

Jackson looked skeptical. The words coming out of his mother's mouth surely didn't belong to her. "You've been fighting tooth and nail to keep me your "baby boy" since you found out I was married and now you suddenly want me to talk to April and not you?"

His mother sighed. "I was wrong."

Jackson's brows shot up in surprise. "Wow."

"Stop it," she chastised.

"Sorry, I'm just surprised. I've never heard you say that before… can you say it again?"

"Never."

"Fair enough."

They shared a smile.

"But you should tell her. Whatever you have going on in your head, don't leave April to wonder. Listen to your mama on this one."

Jackson nodded. "I will." The words tasted like a lie on his tongue.

"Good." Catherine seemed satisfied. She leaned over and kissed his cheek then wiped her lipstick away. "I'm off to find Richard."

Jackson was left alone in the boardroom. He stared out over the empty seats from his place at the head of the table. This huge responsibility had been handed to him. He didn't go looking for it, he hadn't even wanted it. One day he woke up a surgeon, and that night had gone to bed majority owner of a hospital not having done anything to deserve it other than being born an Avery.

If Catherine hadn't forced it on him would he have been content with not pursuing more? Would his passions have taken him out of Seattle? Would he have eventually shirked his legacy like his father?

The answers to those questions were too close to _yes_ for his liking.

* * *

April prepared food like she was cooking for ten, not two. She accounted it to her farm-girl upbringing. Growing up in the way she had, getting up before the sun and making enough food to feed an army then coming home at night to do the same thing, was a hard habit to break. She didn't know how to cook to scale. Her fellow Attending's thanked her for it since the fridge in the Attending's lounge was always full of food courtesy of her over-cooking. But her husband would rather she didn't feed the whole hospital on a regular basis.

It had taken much restraint to forgo the family pack of steaks at the store and instead go to the butcher and get two nice filet's cut to order. Even more restraint was taken to keep the side dishes down to a salad and baked potato. This meal was for just the two of them. It was Jackson's favorite and she was making it specifically for him, for tonight.

Her motives for this romantic dinner were not entirely pure. She wanted to make up for the disastrous dinner with his father, she'd been beating herself up about what a bad idea that had been for days. And there was something else she wanted to discuss, something that she hoped Jackson would be receptive to.

Jackson walked in the door just as she set their plates on the table.

"Right on time," she said.

He stopped in his tracks, his eyes landing on her in wide appreciation. "You look _so_ sexy."

April couldn't help her blush. She looked away and pushed her curled hair behind her ear. "I wore this just for you." It wasn't something she would normally wear because they didn't get out of the hospital much and the places where she could wear the tight, strapless mini dress that hit right below her ass were few, but tonight was special. "You like?" She teased.

"I _love_."

"Come, sit."

Jackson closed in on her. She could see the predatory intent in his green eyes and it made her hot all over. "How am I supposed to focus on eating when the only thing I want to devour is you?" He pressed her body against the counter with his own, his fingers trailed up the back of her thighs.

April clamped her inner thighs together, trying to fight the increasingly pleasing throb between her legs. He did this to her always, turned her wanton and feverish. She bit back a moan as his lips met her neck, the scruff of his beard scraped enticingly against the crook of her neck and she desperately wanted to feel that scruff somewhere else, somewhere lower. She pushed him back. "Later," she told him, short of breath. She tried to extricate herself from him but Jackson didn't budge.

"I've hardly seen you in days, dinner can wait." He wasn't patient with his kiss, it was intense, demanding. Their mouths fought for superiority, nipping and biting. They became lost in the dance they were so familiar with, pushing and pulling and grabbing. "Should we take this to the bed?" He breathed warmly against her mouth.

April's dress was up around her hips, the delicate panties she'd picked out just for him, down her thighs. "Wait." She tried feebly to bat him away but Jackson hooked his finger to her panties, dragging them further down until they dropped at her ankles and he followed. "Oh God." It was what she wanted. What she wanted really, really bad, but there was something else. Something she needed to say... but Jackson was spreading her legs apart with his hand and then his tongue flicked hotly between her legs, his scruff rubbing delightfully between her thighs. April bit down on her bottom lip, her eyes closing on a sigh. She cupped the back of his head, urging him to go faster, lick harder, to do more - and he answered, oh did he answer.

* * *

Jackson knew he was a lucky man for many reasons, the most important one being that April was his wife. As he watched her lithe form sleeping beside him, he wondered what he'd done to deserve her? He'd walked away, didn't try to understand. He started seeing someone else seconds after he broke it off with her. He didn't tell her he wanted her when he knew he did. He let her go back to another man when he shouldn't have. He'd almost watched her marry that man all because of his pride.

Jackson moved red hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. Her lashes fluttered.

"You're still up." she whispered, turning her naked body into his.

"Yeah."

"Watching t.v.?" He could hear in her voice that she was drifting back to sleep.

"Nah, something better."

* * *

Catherine Avery dropped her purse unceremoniously onto the neatly appointed table. "You went to see Jackson."

Piercing blue eyes stared up at her. Time had done Harper Junior good, she couldn't deny that.

"You look great, Catherine," he said, standing to pull her chair out for her.

"Thanks. You don't look so bad yourself." She took her seat and waited for him to join her before getting back to her point. "Now, why did you go to see Jackson?"

"I was curious."

"Really, that's it? You couldn't have just asked me how he was doing?"

Harper shook his head. "I had to see for myself."

"Well I hope that you're happy with the upset you caused," Catherine snapped.

"What upset?"

"Your son's wife feels like it was a huge mistake trying to get you two to talk because your son has gone into his reflective shell and refuses to share his feelings about you."

Harper pressed his fingers to his eyes. "It wasn't my intent to cause trouble."

"It never is."

He casually leaned back in his chair. "This is going so well," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"What excuse did you give him for showing up?"

"I told him I was working on a case that brought me to the University of Washington."

"Hmm."

"I had to tell him something believable," Harper replied, defensively. He ran a hand through his sandy hair. It had gone white at the temples but it was still full.

Catherine waved her hand, dismissing him along with the likeness she saw to Jackson. She reached into her bag, coming out with a folded set of papers. "You can have your lawyer look them over. I'll need them signed before the week is out."

"Why the rush on these papers? We've been married for over thirty-four years and out of the blue you decide it's time to divorce."

"I have my reasons."

"I'm sure you do." He grinned at her.

His smile was magnetic and Catherine found that she was smiling back before she mentally admonished herself and stopped.

Catherine stood, hooking her purse on her shoulder.

"You're not going to stay and eat?" Harper asked, getting to his feet.

"No. Suddenly I don't have much of an appetite. Before the week is out," she reminded, pointing to the papers. "Take care, Harper."

* * *

April was late. It wasn't the first time she'd been late during her relationship with Jackson. There was the time when she was falling into bed with him left and right and beating herself up about it every step of the way. That had led to a spontaneous proposal, followed by a breakup when her excitement over not being pregnant had been too much for Jackson to deal with. She'd hurt him then.

The next time had been a two months after they'd gotten married. April had been scared but excited about the possibility. She knew it was early in their marriage but she couldn't think of anything that she wanted more than to have a baby with her husband. This time she didn't tell Jackson. She did what she should have done the first time and snagged a pregnancy test from a supply closet and shut herself in a restroom. She waited an achingly long sixty seconds before looking at the stick in her hand and then she screamed. She was pregnant. And then she cried.

_She was pregnant._

_April wrapped the pee stick up in paper towel and threw it away. She sought out Arizona to discreetly ask for a blood test just to be sure. The results were conclusive, she was having a baby. They were having a baby._

_When she got home, Jackson was passed out on the couch. She put her stuff down and straddled him. He blinked slowly, staring up at her. "Why are you smiling like that?"_

_"Because. I know something you don't know," she sing-songed. _

_"Hey." He thrust his hips up and April playfully slapped his chest. "What is it?"_

_April couldn't contain her smile. "I'm pregnant."_

_"What?" His initial shock worried her. _

_"Pregnant," she repeated._

_"Pregnant," he mimicked, his voice full of wonderment. April watched as his features went from confused to surprised to elated. "We're having a baby!"_

_She nodded rapidly. "Yes!"_

_Jackson pulled her down to him and kissed her silly. _

_They were amazingly happy for a week and then devastatingly sad. The obstetrician's only answer was that "it sometimes it happens." But they already knew that because they were doctors. There wasn't an explanation for why they'd lost their baby. They'd never know and they understood that, but it didn't stop the pain. It didn't stop them from having to live through the anger. It hadn't stopped April's tears or Jackson's subtle retreat into himself. No amount of understanding could stop the heartbreak of knowing that one day there was a tiny heartbeat inside of her and then one day it was gone._

This time April was wary. There wasn't any excitement, just an overwhelming feeling of uncertainty. She was three weeks late and hadn't even taken a test. Her reasoning for not finding out was simple; she felt that not knowing could save her from possible heartache. What she didn't know couldn't hurt her, right?

And then there was Jackson. He was walking around like a zombie wanting to do nothing but work and have sex. He'd taken her so many times in so many places that she was starting to feel used and that was irrational because he was her husband and he desired her. If only he would talk to her. If only she hadn't invited Harper into their lives. If only she had stayed on the pill after the last time. If only.

April stared at her naked reflection in the mirror. Her breasts were tender and swollen, her mood was weepy. She was most likely pregnant. She placed a tentative hand over her lower abdomen. "If you're in there, don't leave us," she whispered.

* * *

Jackson wished he could say he was surprised to find his father waiting for him when he walked into Grey-Sloan, but the truth was he'd been expecting him to show up any day.

"You're still here," Jackson commented unfazed by the other mans reappearance.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to spend the day with you. Watch some of your cases, maybe catch one of your surgeries."

That stopped Jackson cold. "You're serious?" Jackson faced his father in a challenging way and his father took the same stance.

"Yes."

There was a long silence where Jackson stared curiously at Harper, trying to figure out what exactly his game was. "Okay," Jackson finally agreed.

It wasn't _that_ bad, Jackson reluctantly decided, having his father around. The man was a wealth of information, sometimes unneeded, sometimes unwanted, but most times interesting and surprisingly _helpful_. If he'd had his father around his whole life to dole out unneeded, unwanted but most times interesting and surprisingly helpful information, who knew where he'd be in life right now. That thought scared him, because his life was good. It was great actually.

"So when are you leaving?" Jackson asked when they sat down in the cafeteria for lunch.

Harper rubbed his scruff. "I don't know. I was thinking I might stick around a while longer. If that's okay with you?" His father's stare was direct.

"Don't you have patients or something back in France?"

"Yes, but I have a son here... whom I want to get to know."

Jackson shifted in his seat uncomfortably. How long had he wanted for a relationship with his father? And now that it was here staring him in the face, he wanted nothing more than to run from it. "You can't just walk out on your patients because you suddenly feel like it," he snapped. Jackson pushed away from the table. "I gotta go. I have rounds."

He felt shamefully childish as he walked away.

* * *

Trying to get to know his son was a lot harder than Harper thought it would be. For some naive reason, he thought that Jackson would be more receptive to his attempts, maybe open up a little and let him in. Day after day, he tried and day after day he failed in one way or another. He was slowly realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with Jackson without learning about him first and since he couldn't seem to learn anything about Jackson through Jackson, he decided to try the next best person.

Harper found April in the ER skillfully directing doctors, nurses and paramedics. As an observer, he could see what Jackson loved about April. She had no problem stepping up and getting her hands dirty, throwing herself into her job, but there was still an underlying sweetness, something warm and understanding. A perfectly balanced dichotomy.

She looked surprised when she noticed his presence but she handed off a chart to a passerby and maneuvered through the crush of people to reach him. "Dr. Avery, is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine. When you get a chance, may I talk to you in private?"

She was hesitant and he remembered what Catherine had told him about April thinking it had been a mistake to invite him into their home. He softened his approach. "Coffee when you get a chance. That's all I'm asking."

April worried her bottom lip between her teeth. "Okay. Maybe in an hour at the shop on the corner?"

"Perfect."

Harper watched April disappear back into the movement of the ER, putting people back together again, completely in her element.

* * *

A few things that April learned about Harper Avery Junior during their coffee meet up:

1) He took his coffee black.

2) He was very smart (no surprise there) and could charm the pants off of a snake.

3) He wasn't much like Jackson at all.

While April had initially thought that Jackson was very much like his father, thirty minutes alone with him had convinced her that they couldn't be anymore dissimilar if they tried. Harper was careless where Jackson was thoughtful. Harper was suave where Jackson was dapper.

What she couldn't quite figure out is what his angle was, what it was that he wanted with Jackson, with her? If he'd come to seattle to sign divorce papers then why was he still around?

She'd answered countless questions about Jackson as best she could without elaborating too much. She felt wrong disclosing so much about her husband to a man she wasn't sure he even wanted a relationship.

"You said that you two got married late last year, right?"

April gulped down the last of her coffee. "Yes."

"How did Jackson propose?"

"Um… he told me he loved me and that he wanted to be with me. We got married." That was the long and short of it as far as Harper's knowledge needed to go. "When will you be leaving?" April toyed with her empty cup of decaf.

"Funny, Jackson asked me the same thing today. Like I told him, I might stick around a while."

That set off alarms, buzzers, warnings in April's head. The intrusion of Harper into their lives had already put a perceptible distance between she and Jackson. She didn't want to be a jerk but she wanted him on the first thing smoking back to the City of Love.

"Is that wise?" She asked, hoping that she didn't sound as worried as she was. "I mean, maybe it's too much for Jackson right now."

"Too much for Jackson or too much for you." He tilted his head, staring at her in a ruminating manner.

April shot her gaze back to her cup. Now she was nervous and she was having a hard time dialing it back. "I don't… why would you say that?"

He leaned forward to force eye contact, his stare was direct. "I don't know, a feeling. Am I right?"

April narrowed her eyes, affronted. "You have no idea the trouble you've caused. Jackson isn't himself. He's…" she searched for a way to put his distance into words without sounding selfish and bratty. "He's different. So yes, if I could have it my way, you would be gone."

"April-"

"I have to get back to work," April interrupted, glancing down at her watch. As far as she was concerned the inquiry was over. She stood up quickly, careening the bag she forgot was sitting in her lap to the floor, it's contents spilling everywhere. "Crap." She bent to retrieve her things, her hands mixing with Harper's as he attempted to help. April carelessly shoved her belongings back into her bag and stood up, pushing hair behind her ear. Harper was standing before her with his hand extended, a sheet of paper between his fingers. April snatched the paper from his hand too quickly and stuffed it in her bag. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Take care of yourself."

April found herself frowning hard as she walked out.

* * *

There was little April and Catherine had in common other than a mutual respect and an insane amount of love for Jackson. They were as different as night and day, but Catherine was finding that there was one commonality between them and that was the Junior Harper Avery Jr. He had to go.

When April called her close to hysterics, going on and on about Harper and how he told her he might stay for a while, Catherine shot up in bed. "Don't worry, baby. I'll take care of it."

Catherine slipped out of bed, leaving Richard behind to sleep and searched her suitcase for a phone number. She closed herself in the bathroom and turned the water on to drown out her talking before she dialed.

"Bonjour."

* * *

The ER was overflowing after a major pileup on the I-5. Doctors shouted orders to nurses and paramedics wheeled in a never ending stream of patients, rattling off injuries, handing them off, then running out to bring more in.

Jackson found April weaving in and out of gurneys, directing her ER like a chorus conductor. Jackson looked on, impressed, proud and slightly jealous. For all of his wife's perceived neurotic tendencies and spasticity, April was graceful under pressure. She had an uncanny ability to keep a level head while things went to shit around her. Jackson lacked that ability. He compartmentalized, unable to deal with everything at once like a well adjusted human being.

She was better than him. Had always been better than him and more and more he wondered how he had gotten so lucky.

"Jackson?"

"Hey." He faced his blood splattered wife swathed in yellow. "I have a consult."

"Oh."

They'd become this way, stilted and awkward. He hated it then hated it even more because it was his fault.

"Will you be home for dinner?"

"Yeah."

"Well, okay."

Someone called out for April and she ran off. Jackson watched her go, feeling her loss of her presence intensely.

He wanted, no, needed to talk to April. That was something he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt. The problem was that when he got the chance - when she flat out asked him - he couldn't or wouldn't (he wasn't sure which) tell her how fucked up he felt inside. Maybe it was because he didn't know how to express his feelings all that well (he wasn't a well adjusted human being, after all), maybe it was because he didn't want to talk about his father, maybe it was because he was a coward - he didn't know. All he knew for sure was that his once happy marriage seemed to be running through his fingers like sand and he wasn't doing enough to catch it.

* * *

April was annoyed with her husband and she hated herself for it. As he sat across the dinner table from her, head bent over his food, barely speaking, she wanted to do nothing more than to reach across the table and shake him. Violently. Instead she chewed harder than needed on a forkful of pasta.

"I want to talk," she declared, lowering her fork,

Jackson leaned back in his chair, interested. "Okay."

"What's going on with you and your father?"

He closed his eyes on a sigh. "April, I really don't want to get into this."

April rolled her eyes. He reacted just as she suspected he would. Clammed up and said nothing.

"I had coffee with him today."

The anger that flashed in his green eyes was unmistakable. "And why did you do that?"

"Because he asked."

"You couldn't have run it by me first?"

"I didn't see the need."

Jackson stared hard at her for a moment before he pushed away from the table, leaving her behind. April sat there in disbelief until she heard the shower start then she she got up and all but threw the dishes into the sink. She resented Harper and sometimes felt that she was dangerously close to hating him, which terrified her. She was a Christian, hate was frowned upon. She'd never said the word, let alone felt it and now here she was struggling with the foreign emotion. Trying to convince herself that what she felt for Harper wasn't hate but anger at how his arrival had strained her marriage. Before Harper they were never like this and now this was all they seemed to be.

If they weren't arguing about something stupid, they weren't talking at all or they were having sex - which didn't solve anything but at least made her feel connected to Jackson in some small way.

April walked into her room, blinking back the sting of tears. Jackson was there with a towel slung low on his waist. "Why won't you talk to me?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Come on, Jackson. You're snapping at me like crazy. I wish you'd just tell me what you're feeling. I want you to let me in."

Jackson frowned at her. "Don't you know you're as in as anyone has ever been?"

"Maybe that was true in the past, but not lately. Ever since your dad showed up-"

"I don't want to talk about him. Why won't you let that go?"

"See, there you go, snapping at me."

"You call that snapping? We're having a conversation."

"Argument." April crossed her arms over her chest.

"Whatever." Jackson went into their closet. April followed.

"You did it again."

"What?"

"Snapped at me."

"April," he said defeatedly.

"I want to talk to you."

"So talk." He threw his hands out at his side when he didn't say anything. "I'm standing here waiting. Talk."

April felt her eyes well up for the second time. "Not like this." She turned her back on him, walking back out into their bedroom.

"You want to talk, then you don't want to talk," Jackson said following close behind. "Stop acting crazy and make up your mind."

"You're turning into a real asshole, not much unlike your father."

Jackson jerked back like she'd slapped him.

"Oh, God. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." What was wrong with her, with them?

She felt like they were devolving faster than she could keep a handle on. Tearing at each other, snipping, hiding things, lying. April burst into tears.

Jackson grabbed her arms and pulled her to him. She buried her face against his bare chest. "What's happening to us?"

Tangling his fingers in her hair, Jackson tugged her head back so she was looking at him. He kissed her tear stained cheeks and then her mouth. She could taste her salty tears on his lips. "I love you," he whispered against her lips," backing her up to the bed.

They fell back with Jackson tearing at her clothes, yanking them off. Once he had her naked he slammed himself inside of her, snatching April's breath away. It didn't take long for her to climax. It never did lately. A squeeze of her tender nipples, a nip at her neck, the cupping of her ass, any little touch from him could send her tumbling over the edge. Jackson followed not long after and they lay there, completely sated with nothing resolved.

* * *

"You're all glowey."

"Glowey?" April repeated her friend's word uncomfortably.

Arizona shrugged. Yeah, glowey.

"Thanks? I think."

"No really. Your hair is shiny, your face is glowing. You look radiant. What's your secret? Good sex?"

It would be funny if the topic didn't make April insanely uncomfortable.

"That's it, huh. You two still in your honeymoon phase. I remember those days," Arizona said wistfully.

April moved closer to her friend so she couldn't be heard by anyone else. "I'm glowey, as you put it, because I'm pregnant."

Arizona's eyes grew wide. "What?"

"Yes." April smiled for the first time in ages. "12 weeks."

"Congratulations!" Arizona hugged April hard.

April lowered her voice. "If we can just keep this between us..."

Her friend nodded. "Of course. You guys want to keep it to yourself until you're further along, I get it."

"Arizona," April sighed. Arizona had been the first to know about the last baby since she'd given April the blood test. She also knew how devastating it had been to miscarry. However, she had no clue that April's marriage had hit a rough patch. "Jackson doesn't know yet."

Arizona's smile faded into worry. "Should I ask why?"

"No. Don't ask. Just keep it between us, okay?"

"Yeah, whatever you want."

April spent the next ten minutes on her knees, releasing her breakfast into the toilet.

* * *

**_Thanks for reading! The final part to this story will be up shortly. Just got to edit it._**


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed the first part, personal messages to those who did are on the way! Again, this fic is un-beta'ed. I've reread it enough times to make my eyes cross so if there are still mistakes, know that I tried to find and fix them! Here is the second and final half of this two-shot! Enjoy.

**Here be Dragons**

**2**

He'd stayed. Rented a room at The Four Seasons indefinitely, unpacked is bags and stayed.

The slant of light coming through the heavy curtains, casting across his bed was different from the light in Paris. It was more urgent, less relaxed. It was Seattle sunlight reminding him that he had remained and not run back to his other life once he'd signed the divorce papers and handed them back to Catherine.

He needed the constant reminder of the different slant of light to get him through his doubts, which came every morning, so instead of shutting the curtains completely every night, he left them open a crack so that when morning came and the realization that he was still here set in, he didn't get the urge to flee. The light steadied him, kept him focused on his goal of forming a relationship with his son. That, admittedly, hadn't gotten very far. He was more than two months in and hadn't made much headway.

As deserved as that treatment may be, it still stung that he continually made strides only to say one wrong thing and find himself back at square one. Every day he wrestled with the urge to flee and the desire to dig his heels in and fight the good fight, to forge a lasting relationship with Jackson.

If he had it to do over again, he wouldn't have been the selfish ass that he'd been, so mixed up in his own wants that he'd completely forgotten about the wants of the child he'd left behind. He would have been a presence in Jackson's life, he would have gone on those Boy Scouts camping trips and to the little league games, and he would have been there when Jackson got his first girlfriend with helpful advice. He wouldn't have missed graduation or his son's wedding and he certainly wouldn't be laying in a hotel room full of would'ves.

Harper threw his legs over the side of the bed and rested his forearms on his knees. His mind raced. He needed to find a way to get an in with Jackson as he was quite tired of being on the outside.

* * *

"So, what did you do?"

"April, there you are." Catherine looked up from her paperwork. She had been expecting her daughter-in-law to show up sooner or later.

"Yes, here I am. So…?"

Catherine slid off her reading glasses and clasped her hands together, taking in the redhead ball of pent up frustration in front of her. "Has the sex stopped along with the communication?" Catherine inquired.

April (still embarrassed by the mention of sex even after all this time) blushed a deep crimson. Catherine watched the woman before her steady herself like she was going into battle, the blush fading and a steeliness taking its place. _Impressive. _

"If you must know, no, that seems to be our only method of communication lately."

"Good."

"Good?"

"Yes, good. You're still connecting."

April flailed her arms. "It's only physically. I could be anybody!" Her voice rose, touched with a bit of hysterics.

Catherine tilted her head, intrigued with the slight bulge to April's lower abdomen that she'd exposed when she raised her arms. "You don't believe that, do you?"

April plopped down at the table. "No. No, I don't."

"April, are you pregnant?" Catherine had always been a straight shooter. She didn't believe in beating around the bush. If she wanted to know something, she asked.

April, who never failed to give herself away when faced with a direct question, couldn't look her in the eye. "What? I - why would you-" She tugged at her scrub top self consciously.

"So that would be a _yes_." Catherine leveled her stare on April, and nodded once, slowly.

"Fine, yes, I'm pregnant."

Catherine tried to bite back her smile but she failed miserably. She'd wanted little baby Avery's ever since her son got married and now she was finally getting one. Catherine grabbed April's hands. "Congratulations," she whispered.

April, for the first time since she entered the boardroom, smiled. "Thank you." Her voice was excited so Catherine knew that the baby, no matter how inopportune the timing may be, was welcomed.

Catherine took her hands back and propped her reading glasses back on her nose, focusing her attention on the papers before her (though still inwardly jumping up and down at the thought of becoming a grandmother). "I'm assuming my son doesn't know, which only shows how foolish he's become."

"He doesn't know. I've tried telling him so many times but trying to talk to him always seems to turn into an argument or-" April shifted uncomfortably, "sex."

If Catherine could, she would ship Harper back to France herself. His ability to ruin perfectly good people and relationships was unbelievable. She should have never brought him back, that had been her mistake. "I'm working on something now. Hopefully it will require Harper to leave sooner rather than later."

"Can I ask what it is?"

Catherine shook her head definitively. "No. You're keeping enough secrets as it is."

* * *

Something was different about his wife. Jackson couldn't put his finger on what it was, but he stared at her openly from his spot at the breakfast bar trying to figure it out.

April buzzed around the kitchen: beating eggs, scrambling them, popping bread into the toaster, frying bacon - completely oblivious to his observation. The pajama shirt she was wearing was unusually tight or had she gained weight? He didn't know, though he wouldn't frown upon her picking up a few pounds being that he worried about her sometimes; if she was eating enough, if she was feeling well, sleeping enough. She looked increasingly tired, faint, dark crescents kissed right under her eyes. She covered them well with makeup, but now, fresh faced and in her element, he could see them clearly.

"You feeling okay?" he asked, biting into a hot piece of bacon that she'd slid onto his plate.

"Yeah, fine, why?" She turned away, busying herself with the rest of breakfast.

"Sounded like you were sick this morning… in the bathroom." Jackson knew that she was trying to be discrete by running water, but he could still make of the muffled sounds of sickness from behind the door.

April set the knife she was using to butter toast down. She faced him, steadying her gaze in an unsettling way. "Jackson, I have something to talk to you about."

"April, I really don't want to do this right now. We're having a good morning, I don't want to ruin it by talking about my father."

"Everything is not about your father, Jackson, or _you_ for that matter."

He swallowed hard, the once delicious bacon souring in his mouth. The last thing he wanted to do was argue. He'd had enough of it to last a lifetime. "April-" His pager went off 9-1-1.

"The hospital?" April asked.

Actually it was his father. "No. It's Harper."

April huffed her dissatisfaction and turned her back on him.

"April," Jackson pleaded.

"Just go," she said. "'We both know you want to."

If someone could look into Jackson's brain this is what they'd see:

A rope. April at one end, Harper at the other. One yanked, the other pulled. And he (the rope, fraying from the stress) stretched tautly in-between them.

Jackson resisted the urge to go take April in his arms and make things right, because that's never what happened when he did. They had created a pattern where April asked questions, he avoided or changed the subject, she got upset, he comforted and they fell into bed, or an on call room or the table, couch, wall - wherever the closet place was that they could get to and rip each other apart with no intention of putting the other back together.

"When I get back, we'll talk," he promised hollowly.

It didn't surprise him that April didn't acknowledge his goodbyes anymore.

* * *

Harper checked his watch anxiously. Where was Jackson? He'd made sure to send an urgent message, because time was currently of the essence.

He tapped his fingers over a manilla folder, practically thrumming with excitement. He'd finally done it, he'd figured out a way to bring Jackson closer. In a twist of kismet, the answer had all but fallen into his lap with a case of conjoined twins that would need extensive plastic surgery after they were separated. The scouting for this case was underway and it had been sent to him as a way to get Avery backing. Harper had no interest in using the name himself, but Jackson could not only use the Avery name but his talent as well And, selfishly, Harper knew that it would also give him the opportunity to finally bond with his son one on one.

Harper knew that his time in Seattle was nearing it's end. More and more he felt the walls closing in on him. The doctors at Grey-Sloan knew that he was an Avery and they were beginning to expect things from him, medical miracles, expertise - and he had none to give. He didn't have the drive or desire to live up the the family name and the more it was wanted of him, the more he felt the pressure to leave.

But if he was going, this time he wouldn't leave Jackson behind as a memory. Even if he had to talk him into this case to do it, Harper was determined to connect with his son.

* * *

Jackson entered the restaurant and found his father easily. "Hey," he greeted, taking his seat.

"Hello, son."

It still sounded strange hearing Harper call him "son" but every time he said it, it became less so. "So what's going on, you paged me 9-1-1?"

"I have an opportunity for you."

"_Okay_." Jackson was ready for him to get to the point. He had left April behind to be here because he thought it was something important.

Harper slid a folder across to table. Jackson curiously picked it up and went through it's contents. "Whoa."

"Exactly."

"These twins are going to face severe facial abnormalities," Jackson commented flipping page after page. "I don't know if I've ever seen anything like it."

"They're only three years old. Jackson, you could help them."

Jackson narrowed blue-green eyes on his father, shaking his head. "It says here that they can't travel."

"No, but you can."

The case was undoubtedly groundbreaking. Whoever preformed the life changing surgery on these twins would become renowned. He _could_ make the lives of these two boys' better, but… "I can't leave right now. I have April and the hospital. I can't just pick up and go."

"Why not?"

"Because I have responsibilities. You know, people who count on me at work, my wife."

"And a baby on the way," Harper added evenly, like he understood completely.

"What are you talking about?" Jackson demanded, confused.

"You don't know," his father said, realization showing on his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Jackson leaned across the table. "Know what?"

"April is pregnant."

Jackson felt like his world had just shifted on its axis. He was completely off center. "How would you know?" He demanded.

Harper glanced around uncomfortably at the attention they were beginning to draw from nearby diners. "One day a month ago, I think, I had coffee with April. She dropped her bag, her stuff fell out and there was a blood test; I picked it up for her and saw what it was for."

Jackson pushed away from the table, standing on unsure legs that felt like they'd give at any moment. _A blood test? A month ago? _

He didn't believe it. It couldn't be true. She was on birth control. April would have told him.

He needed air.

The groundbreaking case was left lying on the table forgotten and Jackson hadn't bothered saying goodbye to his father.

* * *

The door to their apartment slammed hard, jerking April from her sleep. That was all she ever wanted to do now and anywhere would do. On call rooms were for sleeping, the Attending's lounge was good for a power nap if she got a comfortable chair, she'd recently fallen asleep on a gurney behind a trauma room curtain, and her bed, her glorious bed, she fell into it every chance she got.

April sat up in bed just as Jackson stormed into their room.

"Do you have something to tell me?"

"What?" April asked in genuine confusion. Her husband was angry and pacing and she wondered what had gotten him that way and of course she knew it had to be his father. "Is this about Harper?"

"No, April, it's about you. It's about us."

"Jackson -"

Her words were cut off when Jackson sat down on the bed and shoved his hand under her shirt.

_Oh no._

He placed his palm low on her belly, against the firm bump that was just starting to protrude. He stayed like that for a long time and April was too shocked to move. How had he found out?

"I can explain," she said after a while.

"Try."

"Jackson, you've been so distant."

He removed his hand. "Stop using that excuse. I'm here, April. I wake up with you, I shower with you, I work with you, I go to sleep with you… I fuck you."

April turned her head away at his harsh words. "You haven't been yourself since he showed up."

"Oh you mean my father. The man who told me you were pregnant. I had to find out from him _about my wife, about my child_. Do you know how that feels?"

"I had no idea he knew."

"You were supposed to be on birth control after the... you were supposed to be on birth control."

"I was but it made me get these horrible headaches so I stopped."

"Without telling me. Were you trying to get pregnant?"

"I wasn't _not_ trying!" April left the bed and stood in front of him. "I didn't think it would be a problem. If I'd known that _Harper Avery Junior_ would show up and mess everything up, I would have suffered through the migraines."

"The only one who messed up here is you."

April jerked back at the accusation.

"That's not fair, Jackson."

He walked past her. This time she didn't follow. April listened as their front door opened and slammed closed before collapsing onto the bed and dissolving into a fit of tears.

* * *

It was time for him to leave. Time to face facts, accept that he'd failed, and leave.

At least he'd go knowing that he'd tried, that was better than never trying at all, he reasoned.

Harper walked into Grey-Sloan Memorial for the last time. The hospital was alive. It practically buzzed with life. There was genius in these halls, legacy everywhere. He could have thrived in a place like this if he'd wanted, with people like these. He could have found his place had his life taken him here, but he'd chosen a different path and had ended up somewhere else, doing things that weren't all that amazing, surrounded by people who weren't all that interesting.

He didn't regret his choices, they were his cross to bear, but he did regret how he went about making them.

"You're still here."

Harper smiled at the sound of Catherine's voice. She wasn't pleased to see him in the least.

He turned, hands in pants pockets, as Catherine closed the boardroom door. "I came to say goodbye."

She rose her brows in question. "Leaving so soon? But it's only been a long three months, not the _three days_ it should have been."

"I'm sure it's been torture having me here."

"The worst kind. The kind of torture that grabs at your heart and twists." Catherine displayed this by balling her fist up tightly and turning her wrist. "You've done a number on him," she said, dropping her hand.

"It wasn't my intent."

"It never is."

"Here we go again."

Catherine conceded, backing down, sighing heavily. "So, what takes you away. Anything _important_?"

"I -" Harper paused, thinking, realizing. He dropped his stare to Catherine. "It was you, wasn't it?"

"What was me?"

"The case I received, you were behind it."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You have always been a horrible liar."

"What if it was me? You should be thankful that I sent something so amazing your way."

Harper chuckled low. "The irony is that I didn't want it. I saw it as a way to bond with Jackson and get him out of the country for a while, nothing more."

"You _what_?"

"Don't worry, that blew up in my face. I ended up telling him that April was pregnant. I doubt I'll see him again."

His wife (because she still was until the papers went through) looked possessed. "He knows?"

"He does now, yes."

"Damn-it, and damn _you_, Harper Avery."

* * *

Jackson knew he wasn't blameless. He knew April had been trying to talk to him for months and that something was off. He'd just been too wrapped up in his own drama to notice exactly what it was. He knew all of that but it didn't alleviate his anger. He was mad at April, mad that she'd stopped taking the pill after the last baby had left them broken, mad that she'd been keeping the fact that she was pregnant to herself, mad that he was mad her.

And embarrassed. How could Harper know before him? How could he have found out in such a humiliating way. Not knowing that your wife, the woman you sleep next to, is pregnant enough to be showing (if he'd cared to notice) was as bad as it got.

Jackson stormed through the hospital looking for the quiet, empty safety of the boardroom. It was where he went to think when he needed solitude and that was what he needed now: complete and total silence. He needed to think about where he'd screwed up and how he'd done it so royally that his own wife had been keeping her pregnancy from him.

His phone buzzed, he saw April's name pop up and he turned the sound off. He couldn't deal with it. Not now. Later.

Jackson entered the boardroom just in time to hear the tail end of his mother cursing his father to Hell.

It was more the surprise of seeing both of his parents together in a room, than the choice words his mom had for his father, that froze him in place. He couldn't remember ever seeing them side by side anywhere other than pictures that dated so far back, he wasn't even born when they were taken. Jackson, already smarting from finding out that April was pregnant, wasn't sure he could take another shock in the same day. But here he was anyway, stunned stupid.

"I'm almost afraid to ask," Jackson said warily. He closed the door. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing," Catherine denied too quickly.

"The truth!" Jackson ordered. He'd yelled and he never yelled, most certainly not at his mother. Jackson pressed a hand to his eyelids. He was exhausted, he was tense, and he was tired of being lied to.

"The truth is-" Harper started.

"It's nothing," Catherine insisted.

"Mom," Jackson laughed humorlessly. "I can't take another lie today."

"The truth is that I came to Seattle to sign divorce papers," his father confessed.

Jackson's head was spinning. "Wait, what? Who's getting divorced?"

"We are," Catherine answered, flatly, like she knew the jig was up.

Jackson dropped down into his chair. He was two seconds away from having a full-on tantrum in front of his parents as a grown man. "I don't believe this."

Really, he didn't care that his parents were still married or getting divorced, it didn't matter to him at all. He did, however, care that it seemed that without this marriage and now divorce, Harper would have never returned.

"Who else knows?" Jackson already knew the answer so when his mom told him 'Richard and April' there was no shock, no surprise, no wonderment. Of course, April knew. Of course, everyone knew. Everyone but him.

"Can you two just go?"

"Baby-"

"Mom, go."

Catherine huffed herself out of the room, mumbling about how bad of an idea it had been to bring Harper back into their lives.

"Son, I feel like I made a mess of things here and I've outstayed my welcome." When Jackson didn't say anything, he kept going. "I'm leaving because it's for the best, but the case I showed you, it's still an option if you want to get away for a while and do something really special. And if you ever want to really talk, you know where to find me now." Harper clasped a hand on Jackson's shoulder. "Bye, son."

When the soft click of the door closing sounded behind him, Jackson bowed his head into his hands, the unfamiliar burn of tears stinging at his eyes.

* * *

A full day had gone by and April hadn't heard a word from Jackson.

She'd called the hospital to ask for a week of emergency leave which they had granted without too many questions. Then she called Catherine, only to find out that on top of the baby omission, Jackson now knew that she'd also been keeping Catherine and Harper's not being divorced from him, too.

April knew that Jackson was furious with her and for good reason, but she wanted him back home. She wanted him to hear her out and she wanted him to be willing to open up to her. She wanted them to work things out. That's all she wanted.

By the time the next afternoon rolled around, April's emotions had run the gamut. She fluctuated between blaming Harper for ruining her marriage, knowing that if he'd never shown up, none of the drama would have ensued.

Then she'd feel like that wasn't completely fair because Jackson was capable of making his own decisions. He'd decided that he wasn't going to express to her what he was going through, he'd decided to take it all on himself, he'd decided to push her away and he'd decided to leave and not pick up his stupid phone.

And since she was blaming Jackson, she might as well put some well deserved blame on herself and accept that her actions had played a part. She'd lied, plain and simple, and she hadn't needed to. Not telling Jackson about the baby or about finding out that Catherine and Harper were still married was all on her.

They'd made a really big mess of things, so big, in fact, that April wondered if they'd ever be able to fix it. That thought sent April spinning. She couldn't imagine a life without Jackson as her husband, she didn't want to think that they'd never find their way again.

Heartbroken and at a loss of where to turn, April broke down and called her mother. She explained everything through sobs and hiccups. Karen Kepner was nothing short of amazing, April had alway known it, but she showed it so purely in the way that she didn't judge or blame or bring up how hasty April had gotten married to Jackson or chastise April over not telling her about her pregnancy. She was encouraging and understanding and she reminded April of the virtue that patience was and implored her to remember that. She also offered to come to Seattle if April needed her, which April did but felt it was best that she worked her marriage problems out on her own like a grown up.

Thankful and spent from the conversation and stress, April fell asleep on the couch with her phone in her hand. Somewhere in the hours between dusk and dawn, her husband had come home. He'd picked her up and carried her to their bedroom, placing her gently on the bed. He'd kissed her forehead, and moved her hair back. "I'm sorry," April said sleepily.

"I know, me too," was his reply.

Somewhere in the back of her hazy, dream-filled mind April knew they would work things out. Jackson was back, that was all the hope she needed.

April woke up the next morning ready to start anew, but found that there was no one to start with.

Her husband was gone.

* * *

Catherine Avery was fuming as she walked the hallowed halls of Grey-Sloan. Her son had just up and left his pregnant wife without so much as a word. No note, no call, no nothing. It was like the wedding all over again. No, it was worse than the wedding. At least when her son had interrupted April's wedding and ran off to elope, Catherine knew where to find him so she could give him a piece of her mind. This time she had no idea where he was and he wasn't answering his phone; it had sent her into a tailspin. Damn that Harper Avery Junior for messing everything up.

She found Dr. Owen Hunt standing at the whiteboard.

"Dr. Hunt."

"Hello, Dr. Avery."

"Where is my son?"

He lowered his poised writing hand to his side. "I- I don't know. Should I?"

"He had to go through the board to take leave. What was his reason?"

Owen shrugged. "He didn't give a reason. He only told us that he needed extended leave."

_Extended leave_. Catherine was seeing red. "And you signed off on it?"

"The whole board did. I'm sorry, Dr. Avery, is there a problem?"

Was there a problem? _YES_, she wanted to scream. Her baby (her son) was_ gone_. He'd run off to who-knew-where to do who-knew-what. _That _was a problem.

Catherine pulled herself together, forcing the ire that was bubbling and threatening to explode from her back down. She straightened her shoulders and took on an air of composure. "No, Dr. Hunt. Thank you for your time."

Her phone went off as Owen turned back to the board putting doctors into little rectangular surgery boxes.

It was her daughter-in-law. She'd lost track of the amount of times April had called her over the past few days. Whether it be in tears or calm and collected with ideas of where Jackson might be, or to rip into her for bringing Harper Avery back into their lives; Catherine had encountered at least 6 sides of April Kepner-Avery and she had a hunch that there was even more to her than that. It scared her how little she knew about her daughter-in-law. Who knew April was so passionate? Catherine would commend her if the circumstances weren't so severe.

"April," Catherine answered, turning her back on Hunt who looked interested when he heard April's name. Her daughter-in-law had also taken an unexpected leave of absence and the whole hospital knew that it wasn't with her husband.

_He called_, was all Catherine had to hear to calm her wired nerves.

"Tell me everything," she said, in search of a private corner.

* * *

April always knew that she was an emotional person, though she didn't know quite how emotional a person she could be until she and her best friend in the whole world were on the outs.

The first time it happened, she'd gone home and consumed a whole carton of ice-cream, watched old romantic movies and quoted them through confused sobs. She put on a brave face at work, but it hurt really, really bad to see him move on with someone else.

The next time she didn't let herself wallow in her upset, she moved on. She went back to another man - after telling Jackson he was the one she wanted - and proposed to said other man. To this day, she couldn't even remember the words she'd used to ask Matthew to marry her. It had all been said in such a whirlwind of emotion and a touch of resentment for Jackson not accepting her, that she wondered if it had made any sense.

This time, she didn't know how to react so she reacted in a million different ways. Sometimes she cried, sometimes she threw things, sometimes she didn't do anything at all. She was angry at herself, at Jackson (and sometimes in her most private thoughts, at God) which made her feel horrible.

April couldn't understand how something as precious to her as her marriage could fall down around her and she be helpless to do anything to stop it. She prayed all the time it felt like, not asking for God to fix it because that's not how prayer worked, but for Him to see her through the mess her life had become. She needed Him now more than ever.

And then one day Jackson called. The number that showed up was unknown with too many digits to be anywhere within the United States but April knew it was him. She hit 'talk' and waited for him to speak.

_"April."_

His voice felt warm but sounded so far away. She closed her eyes, letting the familiarity wash over her. "Jackson."

_"I miss you."_

April's brows scrunched together. "Then come home."

_"I - I can't. Not yet."_

"Where are you?"

_"That's not important."_

"Yes, it is." She felt her anger rising. "It's important Jackson. Are you in Paris?" He was quiet but she could hear his breathing on the other end. "Just come home." April hated how desperate she sounded. "Please."

_"I will, but there's something I have to do first."_

"What's that?"

_"Just know I love you and I'll be home as soon as I can."_

"Jackson-"

The call ended abruptly. April stood in a stunned state, staring at her phone for an unaccountable amount a time.

She got that Jackson was mad that she'd kept the baby a secret and he was messed up over his dad's reentrance into his life, but he didn't get to run off because of it. He didn't get to disappear and not let her know why. He'd left her, he'd left their family. April didn't know if she could ever forgive him for it.

* * *

Jackson had once been accused of being impulsive. At the time he wouldn't have admitted to it, but the truth was, he could be. The biggest events in his life were often spontaneous. Applying to medical school, deciding to go into the Mercy West program over Mass Gen, sleeping with April, interrupting her wedding, running off to get married. They were all things he'd really wanted and never regretted, but had put absolutely no thought into before acting on.

He could now add leaving Seattle and flying to Paris, France to his list of impulsive moves.

It was only supposed to be for a few days but it had turned into almost a week and he had no set date of return. He spent his days at his father's practice, sometimes seeing patients, sometimes filing or improving on his rusty French. But most of his time was spent moping around The City of Love. He missed April so badly he ached with it. He hadn't known it was possible to miss someone as much as he missed his wife, and all he had to do to fix it was to go home.

_Go home. _

_Go home. _

_Go. Home_.

The mantra repeated in his head over and over. It thrummed, it buzzed, it chanted as though every fiber of his being knew that he was making an epic mistake, but still he remained - unable to leave without finding the answer he was looking for. The problem was, he had no idea what the question was that would give him his answer.

Jackson sat behind his father's desk flipping through files. There were no captivating cases, just patients with various ailments, most easily alleviated with an aspirin, a shot or some cream. He wondered how Harper had left surgery for this?

Looking around the tiny office, seeing Harper's life before him, should have made Jackson feel an understanding for his father. The reality was that all he felt was pity. There was nothing to this life, no pictures on his desk, no awards on his walls, no accolades, no cool surgeries lined up on his calendar. Jackson had spent his whole life thinking of his father as this larger than life figure, as a hot shot who'd ran off to live life on the fringe, performing miracles in third world countries, joining Doctors Without Boarders, doing something,_ anything_ other than this.

It was hard to compute his disappointment that the man he'd built up in his head had turned out to be so... _ordinary_.

Jackson lived his days surrounded by extraordinary people, dynamic people, people who made huge differences in the lives of others. He was raised by a fearless woman who was a rockstar surgeon and a stern but brilliant grandfather who had built an empire from nothing. His wife was an amazing trauma surgeon who never ceased to awe him, his friends were interesting trailblazers. Harper was none of those things and from the look of it, he didn't want to be.

What you saw was what you got with his father. He was an aging man, still handsome, easy going and confident, but that was it. Where was the excitement, where was the brilliance or the desire for it?

"Find anything interesting in there?"

Jackson looked up to find Harper hovering over the desk. He closed a file. "If eczema and moles are what's interesting these days."

Harper took a seat on the other side of the desk. "So private practice is not for you."

"Not general, anyway. Do you ever get bored?"

Harper looked around his sparse office. "Not really, no."

Jackson found that hard to believe. "You don't long for surgery?"

"I get in there from time to time."

"I'm talking about more than removing moles."

"Ouch."

"Sorry."

Harper waved the apology away and let out a long breath. "I should have known that you wouldn't like this place. You're too much like your grandfather and your mother.

Jackson had never thought he was much like them at all until now. "Yeah. Maybe."

"Well at least you can say you're nothing like me: the disappointment."

"I've disappointed my share of people." His mind wandered to April, his mom, his grandfather; all waiting and wondering when he'd show back up. "Why didn't you come back?"

Harper stood up, visibly uncomfortable with the question. "I guess I should have seen this one coming but for some reason I thought the 'why did you leave' would come first."

Jackson stood up as well. If they were going to have this long awaited conversation, it would be on equal footing. "Well, that too."

The older Avery shoved his hands into his pockets and turned to stare out of a window. "You've heard the stories," he said dismissively.

"Yeah, well I want your side."

"My side, huh. Well my side is that I didn't want any of it. I did what was expected of me, all of my decisions were made for me, my life was mapped out at birth. I never got the chance to make my own way. The school's I went to, the program I entered, the woman I married were all lined up or orchestrated by your grandfather in some way."

"And me?"

Harper shook his head as if brushing off a bad dream. His face brightened. "You were the perfect child. You were so calm that when you were born and didn't cry like every other baby, the doctors thought something was wrong with you." Harper chuckled to himself, lost in a memory. "You were always curious and observing. I used to sit and watch you and wonder what you were thinking and if it was abstract or simple." Harper looked over his shoulder at Jackson. "I still do."

It all sounded nice, but if it was that great being a father to him, why hadn't he stuck around? "Then why did you leave?"

Harper turned back to him. "Because I was jealous."

"Of what?"

"Of you."

Jackson rocked back on his heels. "That doesn't make any sense."

Harper shrugged. "You're right, it doesn't. All I know is that when I looked at you, I saw a person with a future ahead of them and the ability to do whatever they wanted. No one was mapping out your life. Your mother was content to let you do whatever you wanted. Your grandfather followed her lead. I wanted that. I needed that. I craved the freedom to be who I wanted and live how I wanted."

"So you left."

"So I left."

Of all the scenarios Jackson had played out in his head over the years, _this one_ (the most simple and complicated of them all) was the one he hadn't seen coming.

"I guess I was jealous of you, too," Jackson confessed. It felt good to get it out after so many years. "For a long time, I was jealous of the man who left it all behind and didn't have to worry about legacy or how to be an Avery. I wanted that."

Harper smiled sadly. "You don't anymore."

"No. I haven't for a long time," Jackson replied.

Harper huffed and nodded, accepting that Jackson was rejecting the very notion of him. "Well, while we're being honest with each other, I have one last thing to get out in the open."

"Yeah?"

"I was selfish in getting you here. I brought the case to you hoping that you'd take it and it would allow us some time to get to know each other. When I realized that you weren't going to take the case, I brought up the pregnancy."

"You knew I didn't know April was pregnant and that telling me would cause problems," Jackson stated plainly. He had suspected it all along and if he was completely honest, he let himself play into Harper's hand out of curiosity about where it would take him. It had been a stupid thing to do, he realized that now. All the years of his life spent wondering about his father had finally come to an end. Now that he knew who the man was, he considered it a favor that Harper had left. "I used to worry that I was too much like you," Jackson admitted.

His father wore a defeated expression. "Are you going back?" he asked.

Jackson didn't have to even think about it. "Yes."

"Then you're nothing like me."

And just like that, Jackson found the answer he'd been searching for.

* * *

April put her arms through her shirt and rushed to the front door. When she heard knocking, she expected it to be Catherine but had instead found a delivery man holding a huge bouquet of pink, yellow and white wild flowers. April signed for them and quickly opened the note attached after shutting the door, it read: _I'm sorry, be there soon._

April paced and worried herself crazy for the next few hours. It was nearing eight pm when she heard Jackson's key in the door. Her heart pounded hard in her chest. She couldn't believe that she was nervous about seeing her own husband but when he walked in all of her anxiousness faded away. April threw herself into his arms, loving the feel of him, his smell, the way he lifted her off her feet and how right it felt to be in his arms.

"I'm so sorry," he murmured against her neck, holding her tight.

When he set her back on her feet, April could only stare at him. He looked exhausted but there was a calmness about him that she hadn't seen for a long time.

She touched his face as if to be sure he was real. "Where have you been?"

"In Paris, with my dad."

April wasn't sure if it was the mention of Harper or the build-up of many anxious days and nights spent wondering about where he was that made her do it, but she pulled her hand back and slapped him. Slapped him so hard her hand stung with the impact. "How could you leave like that and not tell me where you were going or when you'd be back?"

April didn't care that his eyes flashed a deep, searing pain or that his immediate response was to gingerly cup his cheek. She hoped it stung like a severe case of shingles.

"Damn-it April, that hurt."

"Not half as bad as I wanted it to."

He dropped his hand from his reddened cheek and reached for her. Maybe it was the jet lag, maybe he was still stunned from the slap, but April was faster than him (a rarity) and easily maneuvered herself out of his reach.

Jackson's hand dropped to his side, dejectedly. "I guess I deserve that, but if you would - can I just explain?"

"No," April snapped, turning away. "No, I won't let you explain." When she wanted his explanations, he was halfway across the world, completely unwilling to spare her a meaningful conversation. April stormed into their room, her resolve firmly in place. When she reemerged, she had a pillow and spare blanket.

Jackson's hands moved almost imperceptibly at his sides: A question.

April tossed both articles onto the couch. "Good night, Jackson." An answer.

* * *

The next flower arrangement came a day later. It was waiting for her at the nurses station when she arrived to work. April appraised the Peruvian Lilies and Orange Sorbet Snapdragons with a critical eye, decided reluctantly, that they were beautiful and then opened the note: _forgive me?_

Forgive him?

Annoyed, April folded the note up and jammed it in her lab coat pocket. She took the vase of flowers to the Attending's lounge and set them on the table.

"Ooh, pretty," Bailey said as she sat down with her lunch. "He's in the dog house, huh?"

April sat down with a pout. "I'm considering giving him permanent residence."

"That bad?"

April knew that most of the hospital was aware that something had gone down between the Averys. No one could be sure what it had been (though there was much speculation) but it was understood that neither April nor Catherine were speaking to Jackson.

She nodded. "Why are boys so stupid?"

"It's in their DNA."

April stared at the flowers. "I can't forgive him yet," she admitted sadly.

Bailey said, "Then don't. So what he sends some pretty flowers trying to get back in. He needs to crawl back, I say. Beg."

"Wow," April said, interested. "Has Ben ever had to crawl back?"

Bailey waved her fork before April, punctuating her words with it like a conductors baton. "At some point or another, they all do."

* * *

Babies were miraculous little beings, April decided as she stared at the ultrasound screen. And pregnancy, though it brought with it many stresses on the human body, was beautiful.

She was growing a little person inside of her. Watering, nourishing, lugging around a tiny human being. And to see that human being moving around inside of her, squirming and doing what looked like waving and at one insanely cute point - sucking their thumb - it was beyond anything that she'd ever experienced.

It wasn't like she hadn't seen babies on an ultrasound before (she'd done her necessary rounds in OB) she'd just never seen _her_ baby on the monitor. And as much as it was the same as any other baby, it was that much different.

The overwhelming urge to cry pressed behind April's eyes.

"Tissue?" The ultrasound technician asked, smiling at April.

"No, I'm fine." The tears pricked. "Oh-_o-kay_," she consented, laughing at how ridiculous she was being. She dabbed at her eyes.

"And there are the legs," the technician pointed out.

April stared at the monitor, following the curser as it outlined a femur, fibula and tibia.

_Click. Click. Click_. The tech measured and snapped pictures with the mouse.

"Can we find out the sex?"

April jerked up in surprise. She hadn't expected Jackson to show up. She hadn't even told him about her appointment. "Jackson, what are you doing here?"

"It's your sixteen week ultrasound, why wouldn't I be here?" He dragged a chair to her side and sat down. "You don't think I'm not paying attention, do you?" he murmured under his breath. "I would have been here sooner but I had a surgery run late." He directed that to the ultrasound tech.

April huffed, choosing to focus on the baby and not her husband who had to have been checking her appointments and charts without her permission to know when and where to show up. Damn him for his position as chairman of the hospital, thereby not allotting her any privacy. Or sneakiness, as it was.

The tech replied, "We're just about done measuring and checking that every thing is as it should be. We might be able to find out the sex if baby is willing to cooperate."

April had been debating on if she wanted to know if the baby was a boy or a girl. On one hand she liked to be prepared for what was to come and a part of her wanted to decorate the spare room in either ridiculously pink cotton candy fluff or the opposite extreme of baby boy blue. On the other hand, she wanted it to be a surprise, and preferred the neutral shades of pale yellow and cream. That hand didn't want to force gender stereotypes onto her unborn child.

Her confusion must of been apparent because Jackson squeezed her hand as if to calm her racing mind. Reality sank in then. This wasn't just _her_ baby. As much as she wanted to shut Jackson out and punish him for bailing on her for the longest week of her life, it was selfish to extend that anger to all things baby. "Do you want to know?" she asked him. It was the first time she'd spoken anything meaningful to him in weeks.

"I don't know. I don't think so. Wanna wait?" he asked.

April nodded. She didn't want to know either. "We could use a good surprise."

* * *

There were times when Jackson really missed Mark Sloan. Most of those times were when he ended up with a really out-there case that he just knew Mark would have loved to have been apart of. Other times were when he needed someone to give him completely inappropriate but somehow useful advice. This was one of those times.

He was at a loss with April. It had seemed like they were progressing at her last ultrasound appointment when she hadn't flinched when he touched her and she'd actually spoken to him and asked his opinion, but two seconds after the appointment was over, he was given the cold shoulder and April showed nothing but a complete disinterest in all things him.

That hadn't changed much in the days that followed, but at least she'd started answering questions related to the baby and he no longer had to guiltily go through her medical files to find the answers she wasn't giving.

Now if he asked, "How's, baby?" she'd give him a rundown of how much kicking or being still the baby was doing. She let him feel her stomach when the baby was active and run her bath when she was exhausted after work. Every few days he'd make a quick run to the grocery store for peanut butter and pickles (the refrigerated ones, not the ones on the shelf). Jackson realized that she was opening up for the baby, he only wished that she'd extend the courtesy to herself as well.

He not only wanted to feel their baby kicking, he wanted to rub her back and prop her feet up and massage them until she kicked him in a spastic fit of giggles. He wanted to run her bath and bathe her, he wanted April to sit down and eat pickles and peanut butter in front of him and tell him about her day.

Jackson wanted it all and had no idea how to get it.

He met his mother in the boardroom. She hadn't been speaking to him either, but after a couple of weeks of ignoring his calls while she was in Boston, Catherine had at least been willing to hear him out upon her Seattle return.

"Mom, I'm sorry," he said a soon as he saw her. Jackson closed the door and stood before her like a little boy ready to take his punishment.

"Oh hush," Catherine hissed. "You think you can just show up with an apology and everything will be alright?"

Jackson hated to admit that on some level he'd thought just that.

"Of course you're sorry now, you're in the dog house. You should have been sorry before you left your pregnant wife the way you did."

"I was only gone a week," Jackson said, defending the indefensible.

"One week, one day, it doesn't matter. It was too long."

"I've apologized, I've sent her flowers, I've been sleeping on the couch for weeks and she still won't talk to me." Jackson sat down heavily in his chair at the head of the table. "All I want to do is make things right and it doesn't seem like there's a way."

Catherine placed her palms flat on the table. There was ire in her eyes and a slightly disgusted frown tugging at her mouth. "Head up, boy! What's this flopping down and giving up because you have to work your way back into your wife's good graces? You're an Avery, there's no such thing as defeat for an Avery."

Jackson sat up straighter, the admonishment from his mom ringing in his ears. "She doesn't want to hear anything I have to say."

"No, she doesn't want to hear your apologies - there's a difference. Now, I have things to do besides sit here and listen to you whine." She bent to kiss his cheek, wiping her lipstick away as was her habit. "And Jackson?"

"Yes, mom?"

"Don't ever do anything like that again."

"Yes, mom."

Yes, there were times when Jackson really missed Mark Sloan's inappropriate yet somehow useful advice, but as he sat there considering his mother's words, he noted that he should never count Catherine Avery out as someone to bestow some no bullshit words of wisdom. He wouldn't be in the predicament he was currently in now if he'd only listened to her the first time.

* * *

April balanced her bag on her shoulder, a vase of flowers in one arm and a bag of groceries in the other as she fumbled her key in the lock and nearly fell into her apartment, probably would have fallen had Jackson not stepped in at the most opportune time and confiscated the vase and groceries from her arms.

"You should have called and told me you were on your way up, I would have come down to help," he said.

April regarded him openly with pursed lips. She still wasn't talking to him. It didn't matter how many flowers he sent her - and he'd sent so many that their home was beginning to resemble a greenhouse- she refused to give in. Her refusal to speak to him didn't deter Jackson, though, which April found annoyingly disconcerting. In fact, he had complete conversations with her and she never had to say a word. It was particularly bothersome when he said something that made her want to laugh. Those times she'd have to bite down on the inside of her cheek or pinch the inside of her thigh to keep the traitorous giggle inside.

"I made dinner. Chicken Parmesan."

April raised her brows, glancing into the kitchen. It smelled delicious but she wouldn't let him know that.

She shrugged out of her jacket, her perfect gentleman of a husband was right there to take it from her.

"How was your day?" he asked as she walked past him into the kitchen, lifting lids and peeking into the oven. "Mine was interesting… talked to my mom."

April narrowed her eyes. So Catherine had given in. That meant that she was the last, lone hold out in the_ Freeze Jackson Out Pact_. Figured, Catherine was a softie under all that bravado.

"She told me to stop apologizing and to tell you why."

Well, it seemed her mother-in-law hadn't completely left her out in the cold. April crossed her arms over her chest defensively. She was listening but she was letting him know that she wasn't happy about listening.

Jackson moved toward her cautiously, like any wrong movement would send her scampering away. He settled against the counter an arms reach away from her. "I was wrong," he began. "Wrong to not tell you what I was feeling when I was feeling it, wrong to shut you out when all you wanted to do was help, wrong to run away when I should have stayed here with you where I belonged."

April turned her head so that their eyes met. She felt her resolve fading and wasn't sure if she was ready to let go of it just yet.

"What I should have done was tell you that I was feeling confused, that I wanted to form a relationship with my father but was ashamed to admit it. I should have trusted in our love enough to know that you would understand, and when things got bad, I shouldn't have left because my place is here with you."

April's willpower was gone. How could she remain mad at him when he was baring his soul to her? She stepped closer. "Why did you leave, was it because of the pregnancy, because I know I was wrong for that and I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

He appeared genuinely taken aback by the question. "No, April. I mean, yes, I wish you would have told me, but it wasn't like I was behaving in a way that was receptive. Besides, after I got over myself, I realized how epically happy I was about the baby. "

"Really?" April had been so focused on Jackson's actions, she'd forgotten that she had her own regrets. "I wasn't fair to you either," she admitted.

"Yes, really, and we both made our share of mistakes."

"Then why?" she asked.

Jackson let out a harsh breath. "I left because had to know if I was like him."

It hit April then that as well as she thought she knew Jackson, there was still so much that she didn't know and may never know. "I had no idea you ever thought you were."

"You said it yourself," he reminded her.

It pained her to recall throwing that accusation in his face. "It was in anger. I didn't mean it."

"Still. I had to know."

"And?"

Jackson shrugged, his features softening. "I'm not." His look was reflective. "I could never be like him."

It boggled April's mind that it had taken her husband a trip to Europe to find out something that she could have told him herself. "No, you couldn't."

April gently rested her hand over his. It wasn't everything, but it was a start.

* * *

They weren't completely back to normal but they were getting there. Jackson still slept on the couch, not because April told him he had to, but because she hadn't told him that he didn't have to anymore. He still sent flowers, but not because he wanted her to forgive him (that would come in time) but because he felt like she deserved them. April had began letting him touch her again, a huge hurdle that he was happy was behind them because he'd had the hardest time keeping his hands off of his wife. And they'd had their first sit down with a couples therapist, which had left them both drained but had also brought them remarkably closer in a lot of ways.

Currently, Jackson's focus was directed solely on the task of massaging his wife's feet, which was hard to do since April burst into laughter every few seconds and practically yanked her feet away every time his fingers grazed too softly. She had her ankles resting over his thighs while they lounged on the couch. He had he missed nights like this; just the two of them enjoying everything about each other.

"That tickles," April squealed, her feet squirming in his hands."

"If you'd just relax," he encouraged, grinding the heel of his palm into the arch of her foot. His wife had small, narrow feet. They were amazingly soft for someone whose job required them to be on their feet majority of the time, and they were insanely sensitive to touch. Jackson pressed the pads of his thumbs to the balls of her feet, rotating her toes.

"_Ooh_," April let out a dreamy sigh. "That feels good."

"See." He let himself indulge in the contours of her face; it was a picture of softness, all of her edges had rounded with the fullness of pregnancy, her bottom lip was pulled gently between her teeth, her eyes were downcast and heavy with relaxation. She was beautiful. "How's the baby?"

"Kicking like crazy."

"From all your laughing, I'm sure."

"Here." April pulled his arm and took his hand, she guided it to a point on her stomach where he could feel the baby's fluttering movements.

"Oh." There was a swift jerk that Jackson could best describe as some sort of flip. "_Oh._ "

"I think we might have a gymnast on our hands."

"Or an acrobat."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"No."

"They both do flips and jumps."

"Gymnasts use bars and beams. Acrobats are in the circus."

"Jackson!" April slapped at his hand. "Are you saying our child's going to be a circus performer."

He shrugged, knowing it would irritate her. "Maybe something a little more respectable; Circ du Soleil?

She hit him again which made him laugh.

"I was thinking more along the lines of Dominique Dawes and Kerri Strug."

"I was thinking Barnum and Bailey," he teased, grabbing her feet and running his fingers quickly over her soles. The laugh he elicited made his night.

"You win!" She squealed and he stopped.

"I knew you'd see it my way."

"Only because you cheated."

"You call that cheating?"

"Yes." She sat up on her knees. "What if I had done this…" April leaned in, nuzzling her nose against his cheek. Her warm, soft breaths fanning across his face made his skin tingle.

"Hey... now."

"Or this?" She grazed her lips lazily along his jaw.

"_That_ would be cheating," he moaned. It had been too long since he'd had her this close to him and the way she was _moving_… he didn't know whether he was allowed to indulge or not. Jackson raised a tentative hand to her hair and when she didn't protest, he dug his fingers into it.

April straddled his waist. Her lips inches from his. "Gymnast or acrobat?" she whispered into his mouth.

"You-" she rocked her hips into his "-win."

"I win." April cupped his face in her hands. Her hazel-grey eyes met his and Jackson could see the want in them and knew it reflected his own. "Come to bed."

She didn't have to tell him twice.

* * *

Autumn in Seattle was beautiful. The leaves (turned gorgeous hues of dark reds oranges and browns) blanketed the streets, the sun rose and set in a beautiful explosion of colors. Everything seemed to quiet and calm, like a motionless wait before the harsh winter blew in.

And that was how Jackson and April's daughter came into the world; a calm little bundle wrapped up in pale pink skin and a shock of red hair.

"It's a girl!" The doctor announced.

"She's not crying," April said. "Why isn't she crying?"

Jackson was smiling the biggest smile he thought he'd ever smiled. "She's too interested in what's around her," Jackson said, taking in the little girl the doctors were currently wiping off and warming up. "She's fine," he assured April as a nurse handed him a pair of medical scissors. Jackson cut the umbilical chord right at the clip.

"We're saving the cord blood," April reminded everyone for the tenth time. "Jackson tell them we're saving the cord blood."

"They know," he said, calmly pushing her hair off her forehead.

The doctor lifted April's quiet child up and placed her in her mother's arms. The baby whimpered, not quite a cry but it would do.

"Oh my God, Jackson."

"I know."

They stared at their baby, completely awed.

"I can't believe she's finally here."

"I can't believe she has red hair."

"Hey!" April stared at her baby. "You know that the brunette was a dye job. You've seen my sisters… and other things."

Jackson chuckled, settling down in a chair beside the bed. Everything about their baby surprised him. They'd waited nine long months for her arrival, not knowing if she'd be a boy or a girl, if she'd take after April or him, or if she'd be a mix of them both. And now she was here and she had April's red hair, something about that tugged at his heart.

A nurse came and took the baby to clean her up. April made Jackson follow with the camera. He took a million pictures of his pink, scrunched faced, red haired baby. When she was sufficiently clean and swaddled, the nurse handed her off to him. It was scary holding something so precious in his arms, knowing that he was responsible for her well-being and happiness. He saw a future full of moments: her first smile, video taping her first steps, pushing her on a swing, teaching her to swim, her first day of school, first boyfriend, graduation, walking her down the isle. It was an overwhelming feeling that he more than welcomed.

He was a father.

Jackson smiled down at her, wishing that she'd open her eyes for a second so that he could see if he could claim her eye color like April could her hair, but she didn't oblige, instead she drifted off to sleep.

He made his way back to April, gently kissing the top their daughter's head before placing her back in April's arms.

"She's beautiful," April declared as she wrapped her daughter close to her, snuggling her nose into the crook of her neck.

"Just like her mother," Jackson said. "I've never seen you more beautiful." And he hadn't. April had gone through seventeen hours of labor and had come out looking even more gorgeous than she had been going in.

Jackson couldn't think of a happier time in his life or a time that he'd been more proud of April. She'd given him everything he didn't know he wanted until he knew he wanted her, and he'd spend the rest of his life thanking her for it in every way he could.

"Jackson."

"It's true. Don't argue with me about it."

April relented, turning her full attention to their daughter. "What should we name her?" April had undone the swaddle and was now counting fingers and toes.

They'd never gone over names. Jackson had always figured that the right name would just come to them. "I don't know. What do you think?"

"Should we name her after our mothers?"

They both looked at each other and laughed. Naming her after the two mother hens waiting anxiously outside of the door, ready to come in and bark orders and directions to the new parents wasn't happening.

Just outside of the hospital room window, Jackson caught sight of a red leaf drifting by on a breeze. He smiled. "What about Autumn?"

April ran the back of her finger over their daughter's rounded cheek. "Autumn?"

If they weren't mistaken, she grinned. It was a quick twitch of her little pink mouth that revealed one perfect dimple in her left cheek that made Jackson and April look at each other in silent agreement.

Autumn she was.

_Fin._

* * *

_**That's it, folks! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed. :)**_


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